The cover of Cuff the Duke's new CD, Sidelines of the City, features a painting by Stewart Jones, a good friend of the band's singer-guitarist, Wayne Petti. It depicts a frosty alleyway in the Parkdale area of Toronto, where Petti lived for about 18 months, and offers visual accompaniment to Sidelines' closing track, "Confessions From a Parkdale Basement". The song before that, "Rossland Square", focuses on another of Petti's former stomping grounds, the Oshawa neighbourhood where he grew up.

"I'm pretty partial to 'Rossland Square'," he explains, on the line from his current home in Toronto's Little Italy. "It kinda felt nice to write that and to mention certain places and people that affected my musical development, so to speak."

Petti certainly seems keen to promote the area through his lyrics. "So if you go," he sings in the upbeat chorus, "take Park Road, and have a good look around/'Prepare to be amazed'/That's the slogan of the city where I was raised/And I'll come running back each time."

"Rossland Square" is one of several tracks on the new CD that benefit greatly from the guitar interplay between Petti and Halifax native Dale Murray, who joined the group last year. Murray is the picker you'll hear pulling off that spot-on impression of a Neil Young guitar freak-out on what is arguably Sidelines' finest tune, "By Winter's End". Murray also plays pedal steel on the album, and his addition to the lineup–which includes drummer Corey Wood and bassist/pianist/fiddle player Paul Lowman–has resulted in Cuff the Duke's most alt-country CD yet. "He added a lot," Petti says of the quartet's newest member, "and it definitely made it a really fun record to make."

Sidelines is the band's second release on Hardwood Records, a label run by Canuck singer-songwriter Hayden, whom Petti's group had frequently backed on tour. "It kinda felt like the Band backing Bob Dylan in a way," he says of the on-stage matchup, "not that either of us are as good as any of them. But he's just such a great guy to work with and play with."

And as far as record-label honchos go, Hayden's no heavy-handed control freak. "He's really cool in just lettin' us do our own thing," notes Petti, who released his first solo album, City Lights Align, on Outside Music in March. "We sort of present him with the record before we're done mixing, and he might make a coupla suggestions, but ultimately he leaves it up to us."

By keeping his fingers out of the band's musical pie, Hayden has allowed Cuff the Duke to create a stirring country-rock sound that falls somewhere between Blue Rodeo–with whom they'll share a tour next year–and Wilco. The latter band's latest CD, Sky Blue Sky, has seen a lot of play on the tour bus of late. "We're all huge fans," Petti stresses. "I don't know if we necessarily try to sound like them, but it probably happens without us even knowing."

Cuff the Duke plays Richard's on Richards on Wednesday (November 14).

Link: Cuff the Duke official site